Article by Lance Jenkinson – Star Weekly.
Altona is just 70 minutes away from its first Hockey Victoria men’s top-flight finals appearance since 2003.
The A’s need only to draw with fifth-placed Doncaster in the last home-and-away round at the Doncaster Regional Hockey Centre on Saturday to secure a September berth.
The Ben Guy-coached A’s are in red-hot form, having poleaxed a representative-laden reigning premier Camberwell 4-1 at Grant Reserve on Saturday. It was a special day for the A’s, who were celebrating the 20-year reunion of the club’s first top-tier men’s flag in 1994.
“There was a lot riding on it, not only in terms of ladder position but also a lot of pride,” A’s veteran Matthew Guest said.
“A lot of guys who hadn’t been at the club for over 10 years were there watching.
“Next week now is all about us and potentially creating our own piece of history.
‘‘I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting up for the game.”
The A’s have garnered a world of confidence out of results accrued over the past fortnight.
They got a sniff of finals winds with a 3-0 away win against Waverley two weeks ago.
Nobody expected them to repeat the punishing three-goal margin of victory over Camberwell, a side brimming with current and former internationals and state representatives.
“The second half against Waverley last week was probably our best half of hockey for the year and I think we took a lot of confidence out of that,” Guest said.
“The ability has never been in question, it’s just whether we can piece it together as a group and we’ve had some inconsistencies with that over the year. But it just seems to be clicking a bit at the moment.’’
The best part about the A’s’ win was the across-the-board contributions in front of goal and in general play.
They had four individual goalscorers in Guest, import Chris Porter and youngsters Harry Dolenc and Patrick Phillips.
The A’s will be a danger side in the finals if they can sneak in, because they have a number of players running into their best form.
Elsewhere, Footscray enjoyed a 3-0 win against Mentone after goals to Andrew Monte, Zachary Poole and Liam Braithwaite.
In women’s premier league, Phoebe Rothfield scored a hat-trick, but Altona still lost 5-4 to Camberwell. Footscray could not take a trick in a 3-0 loss to Mentone.